HETI.NSW.GOV.AU JUNE 2020

TRY SILENCE DURING YOUR NEXT VIRTUAL BRAINSTORM

Research shows that embracing silence during a brainstorm helps teams produce significantly more — and higher-quality — ideas. Silent brainstorming can be particularly useful in virtual meetings. So what does it look like in practice?

First, starting with the meeting invite, make

sure everyone understands the goals of the

brainstorming session. Then, at the beginning of

your meeting, share a working document (such

as Microsoft Teams) with key questions that need

to be answered. Encourage all participants to

contribute to the document for 10 to 20 minutes

without talking. During this time, attendees can

actively ideate and respond to each other in

the document. The leader can also participate,

providing direction and asking attendees to

elaborate on specific ideas as they’re being

formed. Once the silent phase of the brainstorm

is complete, you can begin a discussion if your

group is relatively small. If the group is large, you

can end the meeting, review the document, and

follow up with an email that shares conclusions

and next steps. Or, you might consider sending

out a quick survey where participants can react or

vote on options to move forward.

Reference: Harvard Business Review